As Apple has faced criticism for its alliance with manufacturing partner Foxconn, the device assembler announced on Friday it has raised the wages of its workers by 16 to 25 percent.

The pay of a junior-level worker at its Shenzhen plant in China grew to 1,800 yuan per month, and could even go beyond 2,200 yuan if the worker passes a technical examination, according to Reuters. That's significantly up from the pay of 900 yuan from three years ago.

Foxconn's pay increase should go even further to calm concerns over wages and working conditions at the factories, which assemble iPhones and iPads along with electronic devices from many other device makers.

The announcement from Foxconn comes only days after the Fair Labor Association began inspecting its facilities as part of an independent audit requested by Apple. The FLA said after its initial visit that Foxconn's iPad manufacturing plant is "first class," with conditions far better than garment factories in China.

Foxconn last boosted employee wages in June 2010 following a rash of suicides that occurred at the company's massive mega-factory in Shenzhen. The manufacturer said Friday that the basic salary of its junior workers is already "far higher than the minimum wage."

"We will provide more training opportunities and learning time, and will continuously enhance technology, efficiency and salary, so as to set a good example for the Chinese manufacturing industry," the company said in a statement.

Foxconn and Apple have come under great scrutiny since stories from The New York Times and CNN highlighted purported labor issues in Apple's supply chain. The Times article suggested that Apple has known about those issues in its supply factories for years without requiring that they be addressed, but Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook shot back in an e-mail to employees, calling those claims "patently false and offensive."

Apple announced in January that it had joined the Fair Labor Association, becoming first technology company to do so. Its participation in the FLA means that Apple agrees to have the association independently assess facilities in its supply chain and report detailed findings on its website.

Since our Congress won't do anything about the Chinese it is good to see Apple finally taking a stand and putting some screws to Foxconn, even if it is in the face of public scrutiny. I guess CNN and New York Time deserve credit for bringing this to the public's attention.

And by the way, Apple knew. Avoiding the truth when you wouldn't like it is the same as knowing the truth and doing nothing about it, if you ask me.

Once again Apple changes things. I'm serious here. They could have ignored this and those iDevices would still sell, their policies and determination in this area is changing how Chinese manufacturing works, that's so small feat. I'm glad they didn't simply throw money at the problem either, because ultimately it's not Apple's fault China is the way it is.

Since our Congress won't do anything about the Chinese it is good to see Apple finally taking a stand and putting some screws to Foxconn, even if it is in the face of public scrutiny. I guess CNN and New York Time deserve credit for bringing this to the public's attention.

The US Congress has no business telling China how much they should or shouldn't pay their workers. It's a moral issue, not a political one, and it's certainly not one more excuse for the US to police the world. Do yourself a favour and quit reading the NYT and watching CNN. It'll clear your head out.

Let's see how many of the news outlets that jumped all over Apple for practices that are the same or, more often are much worse at other manufacturers working for Dell, IBM, Acer, Toshiba, Samsung, M$, etc. rush to report this.

So a 50% raise in 2010 and now a 16-25% raise 1.5 years later. So was Foxconn paying their employees wagers on par with the industry during any of those times? Are they well above the average now for China? Does that 1800 yuan get taxed? Is that profit or do they then have to pay room and board out of it? From what I've seen Foxconn runs on razor thin margins.

This bot has been removed from circulation due to a malfunctioning morality chip.

The pay of a junior-level worker at its Shenzhen plant in China grew to 1,800 yuan per month, and could even go beyond 2,200 yuan if the worker passes a technical examination, according to Reuters. That's significantly up from the pay of 900 yuan from three years ago.

The US Congress has no business telling China how much they should or shouldn't pay their workers. It's a moral issue, not a political one, and it's certainly not one more excuse for the US to police the world. Do yourself a favour and quit reading the NYT and watching CNN. It'll clear your head out.

It's not even a moral issue; it's economics. We already know Foxconn is testing waters in Brazil. When the manufacturing cost rises in China, what will Foxconn do? It might as well move some of its production to Brazil, and thousands will lose jobs at the "highly paid" ShenZhen plant.

As Ireland and others have pointed out, it's all relative. If food, housing, medical, retirement, etc, are all covered, and taking into account the cost of living differences for everything else that may not be a bad wage.

And remember, not every culture and every country in the world is as obsessed as we are with having 2 or 3 cars for every family, huge houses with a bedroom for every kid, $5 cups of coffee, luxury vacations, etc.

And remember, not every culture and every country in the world is as obsessed as we are with having 2 or 3 cars for every family, huge houses with a bedroom for every kid, $5 cups of coffee, luxury vacations, etc.

In some cultures, people are obsessed with trying to find a rotten turnip left over in some farmer's field, in the middle of a winter night.

Really? Your definition of doing well is... "Hey, at least they are not starving to death"

I see your point. They can afford that bowl of rice. What is there to complain about?

Tell them get back to work, they can take a break after their 16 hour shift. I have electronics to buy!

What is your solution and expectations? That Apple can and should change China single handedly and overnight? What if suddenly these workers got a quadruple increase in wages, do you think that would buy instant happiness for them?

Yes, things need to keep improving for the Chinese workers. But there are a lot of forces at work and it's going to take time.

The US Congress has no business telling China how much they should or shouldn't pay their workers. It's a moral issue, not a political one, and it's certainly not one more excuse for the US to police the world. Do yourself a favour and quit reading the NYT and watching CNN. It'll clear your head out.

NYT and CNN are just upset at anyone that can turn a profit and grow a market with the product produced.

In some cultures, people are obsessed with trying to find a rotten turnip left over in some farmer's field, in the middle of a winter night.

So it is all good, bro.

Yes, I'm sure that's exactly what Foxconn employees are doing on their off-shifts. Or are you now saying that Apple is responsible for every person living in China, or the entire world, and not just the ones in the factories making their devices?

The millions of workers still being paid less because the sensationalists at NYT made it an Apple story instead of what it really was, a Chinese labor story, also thank them. So you are essentially thank the NYT for helping raising the standards for the group of chinese factory workers that already had by far the highest standards.

You own at leas 5 products that were made by workers in China that are treated far worse than the iPad workers were before. In fact, every made in China product you own was made by workers who were paid less than the Apple workers were before. This is also true of the NYT author. This is also true for the NYT editor. Now that gap has just widened. Maybe if NYT was actually concerned about improving conditions and less concerned about headlines, they would have taken a different approach.

Really? Your definition of doing well is... "Hey, at least they are not starving to death"

I see your point. They can afford that bowl of rice. What is there to complain about?

Tell them get back to work, they can take a break after their 16 hour shift. I have electronics to buy!

You have 5 posts here, and every single one of them is a troll post. Do you have nothing better to do with your life? More importantly, are you committing never to buy another electronics device? Because that's what someone would gather from your post, and your 'moral outrage' at those who do. You clearly couldn't give 2 shits about the Chinese factory workers. If you did, there's better avenues than attacking pretty much the only company doing anything to try and improve the situation. Your indignation is dishonest and disingenuous, and that's a pretty shitty character trait to have. I'm going to quote something psted here, which hopefully will give you some perspective on the issue if you actually care to have some.

Quote:

Let’s review what Foxconn looks like:

Hon Hai dba Foxconn is in fact a multinational company and the world’s largest maker/assembler of electronic components/original design manufacturer, maintaining 13 factories in China as well as factories in the Czech Republic, Slovakia, India, Mexico and Brazil. They manufacture roughly 40% of the world’s consumer electronic products, they are the largest electronics manufacturer in the world, the largest exporter and the largest private employer in China. Foxconn is preferred by a number of companies due to the company’s access to the extensive Chinese component supply chain as well as being centrally located to the large network of subcomponent supplies in the region. They employ nearly a million people world-wide.

Foxconn is the source for many of the components and assembly of Android phones, feature phones for Nokia and Sony/Ericsson, networking devices for Cisco, computer components for Dell, HP, Toshiba, Sony, Acer, in addition to the Apple products lines. In fact the vast majority of the PC product market segment is assembled or manufactured by Foxconn, as well as the vast majority of feature phones for Nokia and Samsung – the two companies that are the majority market suppliers of feature phones.

So while I appreciate righteous indignation against any abuse of power/position/influence, you are obviously poorly informed as to the real impact Foxconn has FAR BEYOND Apple products. Dell and HP together manufacture the vast majority of the world’s PCs as compared to the relatively small marketshare that Apple has.

Foxconn isn't some tiny company Apple can dictate terms to. They're the largest manufacturer of electronic goods in the world, that literally everyone uses. Your beef with Apple is misguided.

Since our Congress won't do anything about the Chinese it is good to see Apple finally taking a stand and putting some screws to Foxconn, even if it is in the face of public scrutiny. I guess CNN and New York Time deserve credit for bringing this to the public's attention.

And by the way, Apple knew. Avoiding the truth when you wouldn't like it is the same as knowing the truth and doing nothing about it, if you ask me.

Care to elaborate on what the Congress of the United States should do for workers in a foreign country. Maybe pass a law that says you can't buy any product from a company that does not treat it's employees really really nicely. Would that make you happy?

You have 5 posts here, and every single one of them is a troll post. Do you have nothing better to do with your life? More importantly, are you committing never to buy another electronics device? Because that's what someone would gather from your post, and your 'moral outrage' at those who do. You clearly couldn't give 2 shits about the Chinese factory workers. If you did, there's better avenues than attacking pretty much the only company doing anything to try and improve the situation. Your indignation is dishonest and disingenuous, and that's a pretty shitty character trait to have. I'm going to quote something psted here, which hopefully will give you some perspective on the issue if you actually care to have some.

Foxconn isn't some tiny company Apple can dictate terms to. They're the largest manufacturer of electronic goods in the world, that literally everyone uses. Your beef with Apple is misguided.

Well what can you say? He calls himself Brainwashed. I guess there is a certain amount of truth behind that name.

Care to elaborate on what the Congress of the United States should do for workers in a foreign country. Maybe pass a law that says you can't buy any product from a company that does not treat it's employees really really nicely. Would that make you happy?

The US congress shouldn't do a damn thing about any foreign workers. It seems as if the US congress and the pathetic administration has enough problems to worry about fixing and solving their own problems and their own mess. At least those Chinese Foxconn workers have jobs!